The Compromise
by ShimmeringSand
Summary: Okay, I removed it, edited it and am now reposting it. The last two chapters have been added. Rachel makes a deal with some ppl, one that can save her... and *gasp* kill her too. read (to find out what happens) and review (so I can know if ya liked it!!)
1. Default Chapter

A/N: hmm... okay! I took the other version off to add this authurs note. and just to say that this isn't exactly what I had  
in mind when I first thought of this. Wow, I guess it just sounded better on paper. I dunno. Its not exactly what I wanted.   
But I hope ya read it, ya know, just to see. Tell me what ya think please. Oh and this isn't some alternate ending. I actually  
mostly liked how Animorphs ended... I guess. Well anyways. On with the story already!!  
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Rachel, I have a job for you Jake said.   
  
And I knew. I knew that moment, when he started to explain, how it was all going to end. How it was all going to balance  
out.   
  
Good idea, Ellimist, Crayak I said to them privately. I don't know if they had heard me or not, but it didn't matter.   
They knew. Knew as well as I did. It wasn't Jake's idea. Not really. It had just come to him. Yea, right. It had just   
come to him, as the Hork Bajir valley had just came to, sweet, poor Tobias, so long ago. It had been planted there.  
Given to him. A deadly gift, that's what it was. It had nothing to do with pieces falling into place, or one of Marco's  
ruthless lines from A-Z. It had been Crayak, and Ellimist; it was all part of our deal. My deal, the deal that I hoped,  
thought, would save my sanity, or at least my soul. Jake was done explaining, "his" suicidal, kamikaze plan. Waiting  
for my reaction, wondering…no, knowing that I would do it, that I alone would do it. I played along  
  
Are you sure, Jake I asked, trying to sound hesitant, hopeful, that he would, could give me something else to do.  
Because, if you tell me "Go!" I'll follow your orders. You know what that means Yea, try to talk him down, see if   
I could get him to change his mind, of course, he wouldn't.   
  
Yea, Rachel, I know what that means. He said. He began to sound regretful. Trying to hide what he already knew,  
what we both knew.   
  
I wanted to back down. To prove him wrong, that I wouldn't just go running off to certain death, but that wasn't part of   
the deal, now was it? But still, I would have to play along, to try and make him see the right and wrong, as Cassie would  
have tried to do.   
  
It won't be the Yeerk, Jake. It'll be Tom. It'll be him Yea, that sounded reasonable. Sounded right, well as right as this  
completely wrong plan could be.   
  
His voice hardened just a bit I know that he said, but then it softened, so many emotions, no way to hide them, that's  
what it was, that and because what he said next would officially seal my fate. And I… if it happens, if it comes down  
that way, I don't have a plan for getting you out. You'd be on your own.   
  
All the better, I thought bitterly, at least I won't have to worry about taking anyone down with me. I could " give in to my  
need to bash heads," as Marco had said once, without putting anyone else's neck on the line. But to him I said,   
That's how I like it.   
  
Okay then. Get started. Make sure Cassie doesn't know. He said.   
  
Say what!? I thought. You still don't trust her? I raged.   
  
She loves us both, Rachel he said wearily, I can't make her part of this, I can't let her know in advance, so, you  
know, if it happens, if it happens, I don't want her spending the rest of her life wondering if she could have stopped   
it somehow.   
  
Yea, that makes sense. I guess that means Tobias can't know either. He'll want to come help me. But that would mean   
both of us... Couldn't let that happen. Won't let that happen. I just hope that Cassie, and Tobias are going to be okay.  
Please. I pleaded silently, and Jake... oh, God. It hit me then, like a hundred Hork Bajir. Killing two birds with one stone?  
Is that what he had meant? The only way Crayak would agree. Jake would be so messed up after this. Tom had been  
his main goal. His reason to fight, to live, to not give up, it had been his only way to see through all the confusion. Maybe,  
I hoped, I can warn him, let him know, that what he's doing is right, not wrong, that I agree. Maybe...  
  
Okay, Jake. You're right. And you're right to use me for this. Not exactly something I'm proud of, maybe, but later, you  
know if- don't be blaming yourself, okay?  
  
And with that delivered, I angled my eagle's wings, and took off. I had a mission, my last mission that just might,  
determine the end of this forsaken war.   
  
ARE YOU READY, RACHEL?   
  
I looked at the sun, at the world around me. Taking it all in. Not that it would matter. By the end of the day, I would be  
dead. I was sure of that. But at least for now, maybe, I wanted to remember the rush, excitement, thrill, and rapture of   
flying, high above it all.   
  
I dove, down, everything, so fast, all a blur, speeding by, the ground, the grass, and ants pulling a berry along. And then I  
hit the brakes, pulled up just in time to keep from becoming a splattered mural on the ground. Yeah, Ellimist. I answered.  
Lets do it!!  
  
A/N: Okay this is it for now, I may continue it, maybe, but it all depends... But if I get a good response, I'll continue it.   
It may take a while, but it'll happen. So what do ya think so far? r+r, flames excepted.  



	2. Deal with the Devils

A/N oh yea, by the way, i don't own Animorphs blah blah blah. Ya know the drill... Anyways this is for  
the people who wanted more. Or at least wanted closure on what was gonna happen to Rachel. I just  
wanted to make clear that this isn't some alternate ending, I was satisfied w/ K.A's ending. This is one  
of those "I wonder what Rachel did to David in the end..." kinda things. Everyone says it would have  
been the humane thing to kill him... but hello? Its Rachel we're talking about. She lost her humanity a   
long time ago, I guess that was kinda the point to #48, that and David. But here we go again... and   
now for the story. . .  
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*FLASH*   
Its a beautiful world, He said thickly. I'll miss it.   
  
*FLASH*   
I soared high above the mess that was our town, towards the Pool ship. I assumed thats where Tom  
would be. And he was my goal. I had to get on Tom.... But how?   
  
*FLASH*   
"I don't know what to do," I whispered, my throat working.   
  
I can't help you, Rachel.  
  
I put him down on the dirty pavement, gently. Then I put my head in my arms and I cried.   
  
*FLASH*   
Flea vision. How dull. I hoped that I wouldn't get caught. I may not want to die now, but I don't want to  
die as a flea on the enemy's head. I tried to keep the flea still. Tom couldn't know I was here, yet.   
  
*FLASH*   
He wasn't going to go away. He wasn't going to make it easy.   
  
Just kill me, he said softly.   
  
*FLASH*   
Go take a salt bath, yeerk. I spit at him.   
  
*FLASH*   
I was alone with David.   
My enemy was completely at my mercy.   
I caught a glimpse of myself in a broken shard of mirror.   
  
And I saw what anyone looking down the allyway from the sidewalk would have seen.   
  
A young girl sitting knees-up in the sun, staring at a white rat.   
  
It would be hard to believe that the entire fate of the planet depended on that girl  
  
A girl who wanted to do the right thing.   
But who had no idea at all what the right thing was...   
I reached for the pretty pinkish rat, not sure of what I was going to do; of what I could do.   
  
RACHEL, YOU MUST, AS YOU HUMANS SAY, LOOK FOR THE SHADES OF GREY.   
  
"Ellimist!" I hissed. "So now you show up? Where were you when I was trapped in a box? Huh?   
Where were you when I was becoming super me?"  
  
RACHEL, CRAYAK AND I HAVE REACHED AN AGREEMENT. I AM NOT SURE YOU WILL AGREE.   
BUT PLEASE, LISTEN AND TRY TO UNDERSTAND. THERE IS A WAY TO END ALL OF THIS....  
  
The next thing I knew I was floating, not in space, underwater. I wasn't alone either. Next to me was a  
boy. A troubled looking boy. His nose was doing a kinda strange twitching thingy. He looked at me.   
And then opened his mouth, and squeaked.   
  
He tried again: "Rachel? Am I... human?" I nodded. "Ha! I am back! No way!! I am not imagining it this  
time! Yes!!!" He looked down at his fingers, at his morphing clothes that we had given him so long ago  
How long had it been? A year? One hundred? He looked at me. Even though his face still seemed  
blank, and his eyes still looked like little rat eyes, he was glowing. He was happy. And he didn't get it   
yet. He didn't understand that for this freedom there would be a price.   
  
And as if on cue to that very thought. They both appeared. Ellimist, and Crayak. Two beings so powerful  
it was impossible to fathdom. Crayak was his usual beastly half living, half machine monster, and  
Ellimist was now some sort of bird-like creature. I wasn't going to ask about it. I would get some backwards  
question/answer.   
  
"Rachel," he said, "you and your fellow Animorphs have suffered greatly during the course of this war."  
  
Wel,l no duh! It all hasn't been a walk in the park, I thought.  
  
"But no other Animorph has suffered more than you," he went on. "Not even Tobias. I do believe that he has... enjoyed   
the way his life turned, and so did you, at first." He once more became his old, fake self. He looked at me, his eyes  
seemed sad, old, maybe.  
  
"Oh just get on with it!" Crayak complained. "She wants to hear it straight. What is this deal. You want to know the deal,   
Rachel? Here it is. David goes free, and stays human, and never gives you all away, for the price of your life."   
  
"What?!" He didn't just say what I think he said, did he? "Why should I give my life for him?" I looked at David. He jerked  
towards me, surprised. His face was a mix of emotions, but they were all slowly melting back to the usual troubled look.  
  
"Because, Rachel, you're the one who trapped me like this. You and no one else. Don't even deny it now. It was your   
plan. Only a monster like you could come up with something that cruel!" he spit. "And now you can't even stand behind  
it? You all took my normal life, and made me a part of your group. And then you all slowly turn on me!"  
  
"Hey now!" I felt all the old anger bubbling up inside me. "We didn't turn on you. You turned on us! I only did what was  
right! And-"  
  
"Right? Right!? You don't even know the meaning of right anymore, Rachel! Tell me, Rachel, Its right to kill a yeerk, okay,  
but its also right to kill the host, just because they had the misfortune of getting in the way? Is that right? What can you  
say to that? Or, is it right to kill defensless slugs when they are in the pool?"  
  
"I... I... you can't-"  
  
"And tell me this: Was it right for you to threaten me? To jam a fork in my ear when I was most helpless? I mean think  
about it. I was troubled! I just lost my entire life and family because of you all. Of course I would have a few problems.  
But did that give you all the right to do what you did?"  
  
And then, not for the first time, I realized just how blurred my lines of right and wrong were. How many defensless people  
have I killed? How many hosts? How many poor, peaceful Hork Bajir? And David? Is it my fault that he is so disturbed?  
Did I push to hard when I should have just given him time? I wished for Cassie. She would be able to help. She could tell  
me what was right and wrong. Couldn't she? Or deep down was she just as confused as me?   
  
"Rachel..." Ellimist. "I want to show you, what I showed you so long ago. Your world. Your oceans with all its life, and   
creatures.Your deserts with all its beautiful pure white sand, and even some of your people, such as yourself, are   
stunningly beautful. You have known, and seen all of this. But David, and many of your other victims, have never gotten  
to see this. And in death, will never be able to."  
  
"But its a war," I pleaded, "there are supposed to be casualties. People are supposed to die...." At this point I just wanted  
to get away from it all, go away to some sunny, private beach, and lie in the sad and let the sun bake me. I felt tired, no,  
old, like I was hundreds of years old. But my mind wouldn't let me. It kept wandering back to all the people I have hurt, or   
killed. David, the hundreds, maybe thousands now, Hork Bajir, Taxxons, Leerans... even yeerks. Each of them had been  
a life. Maybe not a saintly life, but still, a life in itself, full of stories, and adventures that were had belonged only to them.   
And I had ended those stories.  
  
It was a burden that I had felt before, and pushed away. A feeling that I couldn't ignore now. The weight pushed in on me  
on all sides, smothering me, suffocating. It was like being back in that box again, only moments away from a life as a rat.  
My life, my sanity, had all hung on a simple thin thread. Is that how all my victims felt. Had they hoped that maybe my   
mercy would save them? Let them live for another day? Or had some of them found freedom in death? Had I been doing  
them a favor, or harming them?   
  
I looked at David again. He was, himself, one of the most dangerous and formidible enemies that we had ever encountered  
He was dangerous, but that was only because of us. He was troubled, but i think he's been like like that since before we  
discovered him, what with Spawn and Megadeath. David glared at me, but there was also a hope in his eyes. Again,   
someone else's life hung before me on a thin, silk thread, and I had the scissors. But this time there was more involved.   
He wasn't just one person, not really, not to me. He represented every enemy that I had; from outside and within. And they  
were all screaming to be freed. They wanted to live, and I was the life-bearer, their liberator.   
  
"Have you decided, Rachel?" the Ellimist pressed.   
  
I looked at him, and then my mind wandered past him. What about Tobias? Cassie? Jake? My family, my parents, my  
sisters? How would they handle it if I died? Would they all move on? Yes, they would eventually resume with their   
normal lives. They wouldn't forget me, but they wouldn't hash over my death every single day of their lives. Would they?   
No, not my family, not my friends. Maybe Tobias. Yes, I knew that I held his sanity in my hands, and yet I couldn't even   
hold onto mine. Strange how life works. I almost laughed. But then stopped. It wasn't funny. Would he go on with his   
normal life, become human? Or would he hide behind the hawk? But could I put him over thousands of others? Well   
thats what you have beend doing, right Rachel? Isn't it? No.  
  
No more thinking, just do it, get it over with, and don't think about it. I turned to the Ellmist. "Okay. Okay, yea, I have   
decided. . ."   
  
  
  
  



	3. The Fall of a Warrior

A/N- I hope this isn't confusing. Okay. Anything quoted from Book 53 or 54 means present... anything else is the past, a   
flash back... okay? I hope I haven't totally made u bored!!  
  
*FLASH*   
  
Doing good, huh Jake?   
  
I never got a response. How could he give one.   
  
Rachel? Rachel Where are you, already!! Its Tobias... answer me, please!   
  
And what response could I give to him?   
  
*FLASH*   
  
"Do you want me to take the pickles off? Tobias? Are you listening to me??" I smiled. Just one of those Tobias things I   
guess, always lost in his own world. His stop today: The "World O' Big Mac".   
  
I frowned. Will you live without me Tobias?   
I wondered. Will you go to McDonalds yourself? Will you at least be human for two hours at a time, if not more? I wanted   
to cry again.   
  
*FLASH*   
  
"You're horrible. You know that? You're own mother can't even stand you!" Cassie spat. Sorry Cassie, I'm sorry. I wish  
I weren't so mean and horrible all the time, then maybe I could be sweet to you. And will you ever realize that day-glo blue  
doesn't go with day-glow green AND big rubber boots?? Oh I wish I could just drag you off to the mall one more time!!  
  
*FLASH*  
  
I was keeping lookout over the Gardens while Jake and Cassie went to acquire morphs. Even in all out war there were   
dedicated personel trying to keep the animals safe and well fed. I peered down throught the trees of the snake habitat   
one more time. Then looked away discretely. Jake and Cassie were having a private moment, it would be rude to watch.  
But its okay to "accidentally" hear their conversation, right?   
  
"...python family..snakes... far from the kind of hunger a Taxxon knows...very...olisms..."  
  
Jake laughed "... your thinking ahead."  
  
"If we agree... freedom here on Earth... rain forest?... destruction of the rainforest dead in its tracks."  
  
I nearly hit a tree. Yup, thats my girl, Cassie! I looked back down. Cassie was leading Jake towards a snake the size of  
the tree I nearly hit. Jake stuck one hand out to pet the snake. When he was done, he stood up, his brow was scrunched  
a bit. He was trying to say something to Cassie. Maybe an apology for how he's treated her for the last days. They were   
talking again, so I zoomed in to listen to the conversation. Hey, she is my best friend, and he is my cousin!   
  
"...colonizing planets all around the galaxy. And then there's the morphing technology. Can you imagine what that is..."   
  
Cassie nodded in response, and then went on to say something.   
  
"...I guess I think more about us. You and me. And all of us."   
  
Jake took Cassie into his arms. Great! Of all the places! A stinky, loud snake habitat! If I had eyes that did anything but   
glared, I might have rolled them. Guys.   
  
"ow I love you." Jake was saying. Cassie responded and put her head on his shoulder.   
  
"...uess if we win, if we survive, maybe we should, you know, get married...eventually.... we're young, but man we've   
been through enough... few extra years... dn't it?" Oh!! Was he proposing! Thats so sweet! Cassie was crying now,  
but she wasn't all happy, she looked sad, worried. I pretty much knew why, so I zoned out, then decided to listen again.   
  
"...you going to do?" I landed on a branch not too far from a tired looking snake.   
  
"Guess I thought I'd go to college," he said.   
  
"And study what, Jake? Me, I'll go to college, and I'll become a doctor. I'll never forget what's happened, I'll never even try,  
but I'll be able to slip back into a normal life. But you, Jake?"   
  
Yea, thats pretty much what I wanted to know. He never answered that question when I asked him, so so long ago. He   
let Cassie go and kinda stood away from her now. He looked a bit hurt.  
  
"I'm not Rachel, you know. I didn't fall in love with the fight. I don't need it like she does. I dot it, I try and do it well, but..."  
I pretty much let go of that conversation. I'm not the kind of girl who looks inward, who wonders about themself. But now  
even my own cousin was trying to find a way to seperate himself from me. Cassie had done that long ago. So had Marco  
and Ax... and maybe even Tobias. I flew up into the sky and waited until a peregrine falcon and a osprey met me in the sky.   
  
*FLASH*   
  
The battle had gone wrong... so terribly wrong. I was losing blood fast, not that it mattered, my blood was poisoned with  
rattlesnake venom, and I had just killed Tom. My mind was spinning, swirling, and amidst that I could hear the laughing.   
Crayak. He was laughing in my head, the old coot. I began to demorph. And as I did in my reeling mind I was seeing so   
many strange pictures. My life, my first time on a balance beam, meeting Cassie, crying when my parents got divorced.   
I could see myself the night we met Elfangor, my hair had been sticking out on end, so not a good look for me. Being a   
cat. My first official kill. Becoming the bear. Making fun of Marco. Feeling really stupid as Ax explained stuff. Jake telling   
me that I was out of control. David, me fighting him, and then being trapped by him, and then his freedom, he had cried.  
And then, when time resumed, I had offered him a hand, and he stood up, and smiled, and walked away, though his face   
was permanently altered. It was still David.   
  
Tobias. Sweet Tobias. My Tobias. I remembered kissing him for the first time. Flying with him. Hugging him and even   
dancing with him. I wanted him now, just a moment with him, to hug and kiss him again, and dance with him in the  
moonlight. Corny. It was always something I had dreamed of doing. Dancing with Tobias under a full moon. I guess not   
all of our dreams come true.  
  
I spit the snake out, and stood up. I was human now, myself. Maybe human against human I was strong, but against   
lions, and a polar bear? Never. I never stood a chance. I saw them then. Watching me. Jake, my cousin, my leader,   
my friend. Cassie, my best friend, my fellow warrior, my compass towards right and wrong. Marco, funny Marco, the guy  
who saved my soul from falling into the pits of hell when the war first started. And Ax, a warrior, a strong warrior, so much  
like his own brother, and he didn't even know it.   
  
And then I saw Tobias. He was human, and he was crying. I wanted to cry with him then. Just the two of us, holding each  
other and crying. Its only you know, Tobias, I thought. Can you make it? I'll come and help if I can. Can you smile one last  
time? For me? Thats okay. Because I have some strength left. And its for you. So take my smile now, and when you die  
Smile for me then. Because I'll be waiting, just for you. And then we'll be happy. I'll wait for you. . . forever.   
  
"I love you" I said, and tried to smile.   
  
You fight well, human the stupid polar bear said. And then he killed me.   
  
Time stopped and I talked to the Ellimist for a while. He told me his story. It was a bit confusing, but I understood when he  
showed me. He was alone in his war. And he was trapped. Like me. Thats what he had been. Just a teenager with all the  
same hormones and stuff and he had gotten stuck like me. He told me I was a happy accident. I was "special" in a way. I   
wansn't meant to be apart of the original group. So I guess he couldn't work everything, huh? And then as time resumed,   
I began to die.   
  
It was strange. Things sped up, and slowed down, there was no real sense of time. But I saw my friends, and family. Mom  
crying when she learned of my death, she didn't stop crying for a while, neither did Jordan or Sara, but Jordan put on a   
smile that was like mine. Carry on my legacy, sweet sister. My funeral, everyone crying, even Marco! The president, and   
other important people talking about me. They didn't even know me, what could they possibly say to make a difference in  
my friends' lives. Time sped up again. And I saw Tobias, as sad and as alone as ever, he sat under a tree and cried, and   
Jake too, he was crying, he should be happy, its over, it wasn't his fault. He was okay, alive, he should be going to school.   
And where was Cassie. Oh. Cassie! She was happy. But she wasn't with Jake, no she was with some other guy. And   
Marco even had a girlfriend now. She was pretty, yes, but stupid, he could so do better than her! He was rich too. Ax was  
a prince. He had finally stepped out of Elfangor's shadow. And then things went wrong for Ax. He was captured by...   
something. Crayak was involved though. Whatever this creature was it had some sort of connection to Crayak. Jake was   
out of his funk, and Tobias was alone. But he talked to Toby, and Cassie. Never Loren, I don't know why, she looked for   
him for a while. But then just kinda gave up. And I watched a boy. With a different face, and a new look on life. One day he  
came to my memorial. Roses and all. He smiled, as if remembering something, said thank you, and left the roses. David.   
Then Jake was talking to a couple of Andalites that I had remembered from Ax's ship. He went to talk to Tobias, and they   
found Marco, and then went on some yeerk ship in space... The Rachel. They named it after me. I approved. They  
floated around in space... and then they found it. The Blade Ship. The place where I died. They rounded on eachother   
for a while. And then The Rachel began to slam towards the blade ship. An impossible suicidal move. "NOOOOOOOO!!!!"   
I yelled for no reason... both ships erupted in flames and explosions and as I watched there came a voice from behind me  
  
"Rachel?" I froze. Was it him? Could it really be?   
  
I turned, very slowly...  
  
Tobias.  
  
He was smiling. And it was beautiful. He walked toward me and put his hand up to my face, then laughed!  
  
"Whats so funny?"  
  
"You're real... I never thought I'd get to see the real you again... I... love you, Rachel."   
  
"I love you too, Tobias. I always will."  
  
And then, there in the lightest, happiest place ever, I kissed him...   
  
  
  
  



End file.
